Friday, February 4, 2011

The Invisible Tribe of the Amazon

By Lamorna Pope


I worked as a research botanist,and my work took me to countries in South America, I lived for some time in Brazil, where I explored the Amazon jungle, and rain forests. I searched for new flowers and plants that might have medicinal properties in them. I went to remote areas, that European people had not traveled to, and indeed, did find rare and unknown plants.

I do not take pride, in seeing how man marches on for the sake of progress. I have seen it many times around the world. Our civilisation, of burger bars and alcohol, can, in a few years wipe out, a tribe, or culture that had been strong for years. It is like the people are confused by the alcohol we exchanged for their land.

The timber from the forests and jungles, was in demand by the larger economies, in order to build houses and factories.

What I object to, is the forests were not properly managed, trees were felled , but not replaced. There should have been better organization.

The further I traveled inland, away from the coast, the happier I became. I met and befriended, many tribes. There were not many unfriendly tribes, but I did avoid them, as they did not like people intruding on their land. The most interesting tribe I met, lived deep in the jungle, they were called the invisible tribe. This is because they colored themselves in jungle colors.

My first encounter was me waking up in their main hut, I had been hit with a poisoned dart, as I recovered I was aware of a table like a farmhouse table without legs, laden with fruit, like wild apples, and fish like very big trout. There was also a display shelving system, laid with spears and other weapons, it reminded me of how we display our refinements on a welsh dresser. Even there, out in the jungle, our different lives seemed to have a lot of similarities.




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